Pipe wrench



A. L. 5LA TEH Aug. 5, 1924.

A. L. SLATER PIPE WRENCH Filed May 2 1 .1923

Mk/mm Patented Aug. 5, 1924.

1,504,153 earner est tes;

ANDREW L. SLATER, or GARFIELD, UTAH.

PIPE WRENCH.

Application filed May 21,

T6 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW L. SLATER, a citizen of theUnited States, residing at Garfield in the county of Salt Lake and State of Utah, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pipe VVrench'es; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it. appertains to make and use the sense.

This invention relates to an improved pipe wrench, and it has for its principal object to generally improve upon wrenches of this type by providing one of extreme simplicity and durability, which is such in construction that a rapid adjustment of the jaws can be had for enabling it to be conveniently manipulated.

More specifically speaking, it is an object of the invention to provide a wrench including the usual stationary jaw and a movable jaw which is slidably mounted on the shank and held in various adjusted positions through the medium of a toothed rack and a pawl which engages therewith, the pawl and movable jaw being so related that a spring between them serves to maintain the pawl in efiect-ive yieldable engagement with the teeth of the rack and simultaneously holds the gripping portion of the movable jaw away from the shank so that when the latter is engaged with an object and moved toward the shank, it will insure more effective grip of the pawl at this time.

Other objects and advantages of themvention will be apparentduring the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a wrench constructed in accordance with this inven tion.

Figure 2 is a side elevation with portions shown in section to disclose the construction of the parts more clearly.

In the drawing, the numeral 1 designates a handle or shank having a stationary laterally directed jaw 2 at its outer end and provided along one edge with teeth 3 forming a rack. Slidably mounted on this shank is a carrier sleeve 4; having pairs of upper and lower spaced ears 5 and 6 on one side. A

1923. Serial no. 640,557.

movable aw 7 has a relatively short shank 8 and this shank is pivotally connected between its ends with the upper ears 5. The intermediate portion of a retaining pawl 9 is pivotally connected with the lower ears 6. At its lower end, this pawl has a toothed head 10 engaged with the rack teeth 3 and at its opposite end it is formed to provide a finger-piece 11 which is adapted to be depressed for disengaging the pawl from the rack. It is to be noted that the inner ends of the shank and pawl respectively are disposed in spaced overlapped relation and a comparatively stiif coiled spring 12 is arranged over these overlapped ends and held in place in any appropriate manner. By carefully reviewing Fig. 2, it will be seen that the spring exerts an outward stress on the finger-piece and serves to maintain the head 10 in effective engagement with the rack teeth and simultaneously exerts an inward stress on the adjacent end of the shank 8 and normally maintains the movable jaw 7 away from the shank.

In use, the operators finger is placed against the finger-piece 11 and the same is forced inwardly to disengage the head 10 from the rack teeth. The slide 4 can then be moved to the desired position along the shank to position the two jaws 2 and 7 at the proper distance for engaging the object being acted on. With this arrangement, it is obvious that a quick adjustment can be made. By releasing the pawl, the spring will serve to engage the head with the rack teeth and will hold the parts in the position to which they have been moved. Attention is directed to the fact that as the object is grasped, the movable jaw 7 is moved more or less toward the shank and assumes the approximate position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2. In so doing, the coiled spring 12 is compressed and it is obvious that it will exert a stronger stress on the pawl toassure an efli'ective grip of the latter at this time.

By carefully considering the description in connection with the drawing, persons familiar with devices of this class will doubtless be able to obtain a clear understanding of the invention. Therefore, a more lengthy and detailed description is deemed unnecessar S ince probably the best results may be obtained with the construction and arrangement herein shown and described, this is taken as the preferred embodiment of the invention. However, I wish it to be understood that minor changes coming within the scope of the invention as claimed may be resorted to if desired.

I claim:

1. A wrench comprisinga toothed shank having a lateral aw at its outer end, a carrler slidable on said shank, a movable aw pivoted on said carrier for movement toward and away from said shank and toward and away from said lateral jaw, a thumb lever pivoted between its ends on the carrier and having its rear end toothed to engage the teeth of the shank, and spring means interposed between said lever and a portion of said pivoted jaw and exerting pressure to normally swing said aw away from the lateral jaw and to rock said lever to hold it in i engagement with the teeth of the shank.

2. A wrench comprising a toothed shank shaving a lateral jaw at its outer end, a carrier slidable on said shank, a movable jaw having a comparatively short shank pivotally connected at a point between its ends to 25 and adapted to be forced inwardly toward 30 this shank by the users thumb, said levers being toothed on its opposite end and engaged with the teeth on said first named' shank, and a spring between said overlapped ends exertingoutward stress on said inner 35 end o1 the lever and an inward stress on sald short shank at a point between the pivot of this shank and its inner extremity to simultaneously hold said lever engaged with the teeth of said toothed shank andexert acon stant forcetending to open said movable jaw with respect to said lateral jaws i In testimony whereof I have hereunto afliXed my signature.

ANDREW L. SLATER. 

